Original Painting of a Weaving Lesson [SOLD]

Harrison Begay (1914-2012) Haashké yah Níyá - The Wandering Boy was a successful and widely influential Diné painter and printmaker.  Begay was one of the most well-known students of the Santa Fe Indian School, where he was educated from 1934 to 1940. He received a great deal of international acclaim during his long career, and was one of the first Native American artists to support himself financially with his artwork.  Begay enjoyed a long career as a prolific creator of “flat-style” watercolor paintings, celebrating beauty and serenity with a warm and inviting color palette. Begay always painted with soft pastel colors—never anything bright or garish—and chose scenes of religious rituals and Navajo daily life as his subjects.  

“Extreme delicacy becomes uppermost in this artist’s works with lines so fine that it seems impossible that they could have been made with a brush.  Coupled with this are the keen powers of observation of which the [American] Indian has more than his share. In Begay’s work there is often the disciplined balance between the heavy formalities of inherited tradition and a warm realism which developed within a very short span of years… Begay evolved a style that is essentially his own, a style which influenced others, but which has not been equaled in perfection by any of those he has so greatly affected.  Lines that breathe rhythm; clean, cool, and sensitive coloring; a gentleness of figure; peace and calm throughout, from facial expression to composition; impeccable drawing, the best in Navajo art; simplicity coupled with realistic detail; few and conventional plant forms or other background effects; harmony and serenity-—these and other more elusive traits and qualities are combined in the inimitable Begay manner.” Tanner 1973

This untitled watercolor painting features a timeless Navajo scene: the weaving of a rug.  Begay’s gentle hand and soft color palette served images like this one particularly well. They feel peaceful, warm and inviting, providing viewers with lovely snapshots of traditional Navajo life. The Navajo elder schooling an apprentice was a favorite subject. Most frequently, this elder was a medicine man. Here, the elder is female, and her lesson covers the weaving of a rug. Her age is visible in her white hair and the exaggerated wrinkles in her face and neck. She sits on her her knees, facing her student, with a raised hand and an extended finger.  Begay makes it abundantly clear to the viewer that the lesson is in progress. The student, standing tall and reaching up towards her loom, is presented with Begay’s typical charm.

In the center of the image is the result of these women’s labors: a beautiful rug.  On the ground in between them is a similarly colored textile, upon which a basket sits.  The women’s various tools are scattered around at their feet. In the foreground, two lambs, a dog, and a kitten frolic and feed on grasses.  Surrounding the women and the loom is, as one would expect of a Begay painting, a guardian rainbow. The image, with its soft pastel tones and endlessly endearing subject matter, is classic Harrison Begay.  His quietly authoritative teacher and attentive student will delight collectors of traditional Navajo imagery. The painting is signed “Haskay Yah Ne Yah” in its lower left corner, and “Harrison Begay” in its lower right. The painting is not dated.

Condition: this Original Painting of a Weaving Lesson is in excellent condition

Provenance: private collection

Reference: Tanner, Clara Lee. Southwest Indian Painting: a changing art

Note: when we say Diné, as opposed to Navaho or Navajo, we are referring to the people and not the government.  Since 1969, their government refers to itself as the Navajo Nation.